HamburgerMeat (Axis) vs Marcinos1985 (Allies) - highlights from game

[Marcinos1985]

A recent tournament game has ended and I wanted to show you some highlights from short-lived Eastern Front. Before this, short summary what happened up to 1941:

- Warsaw fell in 1st turn, but Poland gave up on Axis 2nd
- Luxembourg surrendered in October, Belgium in December, all taken in one turn. I don't remeber when Netherlands were attacked, but reasonably later (June/July?)
- France finally gave up in June 1940. BEF Army and AA gun were wiped out, HQ sailed back home and 2 corps made last stand in Cherbourg and Brest, mopped up in July
- In August and September UK was heavily bombed and due to poor positioning, I lost some fighters. Ultimately Sealion did not come
- Meanwhile Italy made a short stand at Tobruk, afterwards began to withdraw slowly, ultimately up to Tunis
- All went silent for several months, excpet some naval skirmishes
- China was China, gradually pushed back, Chonqing did not fall until end of the game but wasn't far away from that
- Greece was not attacked, Yugo was after a coup and lasted 2 turns
- Axis went heavy diplo on Turkey, which I didn't counter. Some good rolls and Turkey joined in last turn of the game.
- Barbarossa began in June 1941

[Marcinos1985]

During preparation I made some mistakes:

1. I did not check what HM bought on 1st turn - a paratrooper. So in the end he had 3, which is important
2. Not a mistake per se, but USSR mobilization was low throughout 1940 - 28%. Not much MPP's to work with
3. I did not brought one corps from Syberia - usually I leave one in Vladivostok, this game I left one in Borzya
4. In Autumn I was accumulating MPP's for an HQ. But somehow I forgot about it and picked a tech instead (C&C?). That's a huge blunder with large consequences
5. Army positioning in the South was probably a bit suboptimal

Setup I used in this game was nearly 1:1 form this AAR. One difference - HM did not annex Lithuania, so AGN was further back. I setup North like this:

[Marcinos1985]

And center:

[Marcinos1985]

And South:

[Marcinos1985]

Then 'things' began to happen. First of all, North was breached pretty quickly - Riga fell, Polotsk was undefended = asking for trouble. In result I panicked a little and started to bring there more troops then neccesary, at the cost of other fronts.

[Marcinos1985]

Meanwhile, in July southern front was established. See Konotopa - it's a Voroshilov HQ, brought from Leningrad - understrength, without entrenchment and AA upgrade, with poor commander. Konotopa did not have AA upgrade too.

[Marcinos1985]

Then a manouver, similar to this AAR, took place. Voroshilov was bombed to the ground (Axis had 19 planes in this game, with GAW lvl 2 I believe) and 3 paras dropped, while Dnieper bank was breached. 5 units caught in a cauldron.

[Marcinos1985]

A hasty counterattack was ordered, not without a success. But...

[Marcinos1985]

An axis hammer fell once more, this time sealing the fate of units near Kiev. With low supply, they weren't able to withdraw a turn before. Now tanks are gone, 4 units will be dead without a refund and there is a huge gap in a whole southern front.

[Marcinos1985]

Suddenly, Soviet armies protecting Smolensk were swept away.

[Marcinos1985]

I think I had a reasonably good game earlier. Summer in UK 1940 was poorly played by me, but no other glaring blunders. But some mistakes in Russia and here goes the game. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the game very much and learned a lot, so I am a winner too (somewhat). [:'(]

[Marcinos1985]

Some stats. Thank you for reading, If you have any question feel free to post it. Any advice/opinion is appreciated.

[HamburgerMeat]

A few thoughts that come to mind:

1. I don't like the move of using a garrison at Hanko. It's going to fall, and the german navy can keep the port to <5 to prevent reinforcements. Saving a garrison doesn't seem like much, but they are very useful for building up entrenchment for your second line when the first line falls

2. I'm starting to dislike my fortification setup at Smolensk. I am thinking about pulling it ever so slightly back.

3. Maybe move those tanks at Kharkov a little closer in late July. That way, you get into a better position to counterattack from while still being safe. It's a tough call, but if the tanks were one more hex back during my counterattack, I probably could not have reached them. Again, it's a tough call as (a) Kharkov is safer vs bombers and (b) they're building entrenchment while inside

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

Excellent game shots, thanks for posting

[Aussiematto]

Super helpful, everyone - thanks for sharing all this info. I take it, HamburgerMeat, that the idea is to kill units, not take space in Russia? Since space can fall later, but those units are not coming back.

FWIW, I think Marcinos had a great plan - to hold a bit further forward than is common (especially in the south) but it shows how you need to hold more cities than there are troops for - the North would have been OK if key towns had held. Maybe defending forward in either south or north but not both?

[HamburgerMeat]

ORIGINAL: Aussiematto

Super helpful, everyone - thanks for sharing all this info. I take it, HamburgerMeat, that the idea is to kill units, not take space in Russia? Since space can fall later, but those units are not coming back.

You want to do both. Remember, if a unit's supply is >4 when they are destroyed, they can be rebuilt at a discount. So ideally you'll be trying to cut off who you can while still steadily advancing. Most of the time you'll have to destroy USSR units at >4 supply though.

I wouldn't say the choice between taking space versus killing units should always be decided in favor of killing units. It really depends on how much space you're able to take that turn versus how many units you'll be able to kill

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

Hamburger is tough with the Paratroops. Kicked my ass with Sealion, after I gambled.

[Marcinos1985]

ORIGINAL: Aussiematto

Super helpful, everyone - thanks for sharing all this info. I take it, HamburgerMeat, that the idea is to kill units, not take space in Russia? Since space can fall later, but those units are not coming back.

FWIW, I think Marcinos had a great plan - to hold a bit further forward than is common (especially in the south) but it shows how you need to hold more cities than there are troops for - the North would have been OK if key towns had held. Maybe defending forward in either south or north but not both?

Well, in fact it was HM's own plan, described in his AAR, and its a plan not without merits. Still, you have to execute it well, not like Supreme Allied Commander in this game.

But I am curious about this:

to hold a bit further forward than is common (especially in the south)

So what is common (serious question)? I personally like to hang onto Dnipropietrovsk a couple of turns, but then you must protect your northern flank and a Major River Bank seems a good place.

Let's not talk about North, flawed idea from the begginning. Would be somewhat justifiable if I wanted to get out some spawning units, but I didn't.

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

@Marcinos1985 --- Hey, you're online. Soccer practice has been cancelled, you wanna a game? You can have either side. I want to game & gamble sports now.

[Marcinos1985]

Sent you a PM, let's dance.